![Women working in the Betty Crocker kitchens](https://brandsitesplatform-res.cloudinary.com/image/fetch/w_1984,c_scale,q_auto:eco,f_auto,fl_lossy,dpr_1.0,e_sharpen:85/https://assets.brandplatform.generalmills.com%2F-%2Fmedia%2Fproject%2Fgmi%2Fcorporate%2Fcorporate-master%2Fimages%2Fnews-stories%2F2022%2F3%2Fbetty-crocker-women%2Fbetty-crocker-women-featured.png%3Fw%3D568%26rev%3D8455d1f3b1dd4ffa9ab0eae558a2edfe 1984w)
How Betty Crocker began
In 1921, Gold Medal Flour featured a puzzle advertisement on the back of The Saturday Evening Post inviting consumers to send in the completed puzzle to receive a free Gold Medal Flour pincushion in return.
But Washburn-Crosby, our predecessor company in Minneapolis, Minnesota, didn’t just receive the completed puzzles; they were flooded with thousands of baking questions from consumers.
The Advertising Department decided they needed a female persona to respond to the questions.
And that is how Betty Crocker was born.
The name Crocker came from a recently retired company director and Betty was chosen simply because it sounded friendly.
What happened next is a story of women, who in many ways were ahead of their time. Women who created, embodied and led Betty Crocker into the future.